Business and industry commonly use barrels to store a variety of liquids and other trinkets. A standard 55 gallon barrel can be extremely heavy and difficult to move.
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Inventors have created carts and pulleys of different sorts to make movement of a barrel more manageable. U.S. Pat. No. D340,563 issued Oct. 19, 1993 to Kean et al. offers a simple platform supported by 4 casters suitable for carrying a barrel. Kean's rolling platform makes the chore of moving a barrel much easier. The simple design was later improved upon by U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,293 issued Dec. 3, 2002 to Mitchell et al. Mitchell added a handle to the cart that made maneuvering the barrel easer. The base was circular in form and even provided a means of capturing small amounts of liquid that might spill or leak from the barrel. Still another U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,543 issued May 19, 1998 to Groening went as far as being able to contain a spill if all of a full barrel's contents should a leak occur.
Although there are several available types of barrel movers that are available today, they tend to provide inadequate utility in 3 areas of use.
First, because of the weight of a full barrel, the barrel is rarely unloading off the cart and the barrel tends to stay on the cart until its contents are consumed. Placing a loaded cart on a slightly inclining surface such as a driveway will cause the cart to roll away. A freely rolling cart and barrel creates a potential hazard because in an industrial setting with fast paced activity a barrel on a freely rolling cart could accidentally be bumped onto the path of forklifts and other machinery.
Second, the contents of a barrel are often expensive. A barrel placed on a cart can easily be rolled away by a thief. Even shrinkage of the barrel's contents can be expensive and frustrating.
Third, draining the barrel with a pump often leaves some undesired liquid at the bottom. Shims are often used to prop up one side of the barrel to allow for more complete evacuation.